I just picked up this announcement from a tweet by the AHRC press office:

In March the AHRC will be moving to a new cross-Council grants processing system as part of completing its transition to the RCUK Shared Services Centre. This is part of a process leading to all Research Councils receiving and processing their grant applications through a common system. Harmonisation of common processes will allow for greater consistency across the Research Councils and result in efficiency savings which will be channelled into further investment in research.

However, due to the technical complexity of these changes, we need a short period when normal application processes are suspended to ensure that migration of systems can take place quickly and efficiently and overall disruption be kept to an absolute minimum. Applicants will therefore not be able to submit grant proposals through Je-S from 4pm on the 28 Jan, with calls re-opening on 1 March. During this period, they will, however, be able to access the Je-S system, create proposals and complete some sections of the form, although some sections will be unavailable.

In addition, there may be some delay in processing applications after 1 March while transfer to the new system takes place.  Any post-award amendment requests received after 28 January will be held until after 1 April. Deadlines for issuing and returning final reports and final expenditure statements which are due between 1 Feb and 31 March may also be extended.

Research managers and administrators are requested to cascade this information to colleagues where appropriate and applicants are advised to ensure that they check the Je-S and AHRC websites for further information.

Professor Rick Rylance, Chief Executive of the AHRC, said: “The transition to the new and common systems has been complex and challenging, but the rewards will be significant in terms of consistency and efficiency across the Research Councils. The AHRC will of course do its utmost to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum.”

If you would like to discuss any issues you might have about these changes or their implications, please contact:p.pothen@ahrc.ac.uk